John Wayne was probably the biggest star
in the world...yet he retained the qualities of a small boy. He had the
enthusiasm for life that would make a high school football star envious.
And through it all, Duke never changed. As a man he was exactly the boy
he started out. And as a friend...well, you just wouldn't want a better
one.In his lifetime, Duke stamped AMERICA across
the face of the motion picture industry. Few other men, living dead, have
ever portrayed the fine, decent, and generous American qualities as Duke
did. He portrayed on screen the values he lived off screen. Gentle...so
much so, it would have surprised his critics. Loyal...once your friend,
always your friend. Courageous...if you doubt it, remember his fight against
cancer, or the way he faced heart surgery. And decent. Above all, Duke
was a decent man.He was also far from perfect. He made his
mistakes as I have made mine and you have made yours. All in all, I would
say they were unintentional. Mistakes of the heart, I would say. Let me
say this about the John Wayne I knew. He was an Original. He was the Statue
of his Times.All in all, I think it was the man's integrity
that speaks most of him. His principles never varied. Nor did his ideals.
Nor did his faith in mankind.Jimmy Stewart

Throughout John Wayne's motion picture
career, with very few exceptions, he portrayed America and Americans. On
the silver screen we were with Duke through the winning of the West, our
victory over the evil powers of World War II, battling against nature,
facing down the dangers of the not always "Cold War," and just facing every
day life.We were with him as he fought against British
tyranny, joined the gallant men at the Alamo, met the call to duty in the
second world war, and fought to stop Communism in far off Vietnam.
We were with him as he combated the San
Francisco earthquake of 1906, fought against the floods of the Mississippi,
battled droughts on the Great Plains, and survived and suffered losses
from illness and injury. And, we were with John Wayne as he loved and lost,
raised families, fought against local corruption, and overcame personal
tragedy.

What is different is that the John Wayne
you see on the screen, is the man he was in real life. He didn't get the
title, "Mr. America," for nothing. Duke was and is Mr. America. Decades
after his death, he is still an inspiration of what is good and right about
America.
Denis R. Graham